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I met with several people from church on Wednesday night, September 5, 2018, to hear from God through the Scripture.

Following our traditional pattern, we read the Moravian Text’s New Testament reading for that day, which was Luke 20:39-51.

This was a familiar passage. Familiar passages can be difficult to use; they become too familiar to us; our familiarity with them keeps us from hearing God in them; we gloss over them or think we already know what they say. But by reading slowly and looking at an unfamiliar translation (ESV), we were able to hear some interesting things.

Our attention was caught mostly by the fact that Jesus was praying. We noticed that He was praying passionately even though He already received His answer (i.e., the cup would not be taken from Him). We believed this was an indication that prayer is more than just asking God for things but is also a way to enter into the will of God.

This led us into the covenant triangle.

We discussed the fact that obedience (which is what Jesus’ “thy will be done” prayer was) comes out of identity, which in turns comes from the Father’s acceptance/adoption of us. We continued to discuss the fact that such obedience does not earn our identity but is an expression of our identity. We noted that this obedience often comes through a time of prayer such as Jesus’ and takes a lot of trust.

After that, we asked what God might be calling us to do. Since this was such a large message, I did not push anyone for a specific answer but allowed them to simply think about it.

Here’s our whiteboard notes. The kids decorated it a little after we were done.

We finally concluded that this was not just a part of the Gospel story we all knew, nor was it even just a lesson God was trying to teach us. We realized that this was actually Jesus living as a genuine disciple. Yes, this is an example for us and can (and should) be used as such. But it is a sincere example; Jesus did this not to teach us something (even though He does teach us in it) but because this is what disciples do; it is what He, as the premier disciple, needed to do at that moment. Thus, such times of prayer, prayer offering submission to the will of God/a readiness to obey even in difficult circumstances, is what we need to do as well.

I was greatly encouraged by this devotional time. I can’t wait for our next meeting on October 3rd. I hope you can make it!

I met Tuesday morning with a group of pastors, as usual. Our reading came from the Moravian Daily Text. It was Luke 6:39-40.

At first glance, this seems like a collection of disparate teachings. The leader of our group suggested that this was a rabbinical style “string of pearls” teaching technique (apparently the rabbis wouldn’t teach for too long on one subject but would move from one to another to keep the people engaged). Nonetheless, I saw a similar idea in most if not all of the teachings. I saw several other ideas as well, which I recorded in my journal.

The big thing I heard here is that most teachings have behind them the idea of a “good” or “fully trained” man. This in turn lead to the question, “Am I good/fully trained?” For me, this is a difficult question, one I’ve struggled with all my life. I “feel” and/or believe the answer to be, “No.” For that reason, I felt very challenged by these teachings. I felt eliminated by them, in fact, as if they disqualify me or reveal my disqualification from the community of Christ.

As I continued to contemplate these things, I realized there is actually invitation here. I think it comes when Jesus says “The student is above his teacher”. With that, Jesus is eliminating all need for competition and comparison. He is telling me that there is only so far I can go in this goodness/training, that I’m certainly not going to go further than or supersede Him (the teacher in question). That being the case, I am free to pursue goodness and training without needing to wonder how much I and/or how much more I am than anybody else. I took this to be an encouragement. I saw, then, that Jesus was not eliminating me here (establishing that I am not good/fully trained) but encouraging me (asking me to pursue goodness/training).

One of the pastors in the group further suggested that this is not something we can do on our own, that goodness comes into us only from God. I think this is suggested by the “foundation” idea Jesus ends the message on. That foundation is obviously God/the teachings of God. The man builds on it, puts some effort into setting himself upon it. But that effort is only effective because God is there to begin with.

The main idea I took from this reading, then, is that God is an encourager, encouraging me to growth/training in His Kingdom. The subsequent action I took from this reading was a need to ask God to make me good, to remove the evil stirred up in my heart/the plank in my eye/my blindness so that I can be good and fully trained as He is encouraging me to be.